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Botany

The Great Green Wall
The Sahel area, straddling 27 countries, has now been mapped in detail showing where and how to create Africa’s Great Green Wall. Some 166 million hectares of land have been identified for restoration - nearly three times the size of Kenya or France. The Great Green Wall project was launched by the African Union to combat desertification. (Great Great Wall, Sahara, Africa, FAO, reversing desertification, sustainability.)Advanced

Growing Well At School
Planting a successful school garden requires a lot more than just soil, seeds and water, say researchers who have come up with a planning tool that can help ensure school gardens thrive and endure.Intermediate

Plants At Risk
One in five types of plant worldwide is at risk of extinction from threats such as farming and logging that are wrecking many habitats, a first global overview of plant life said on Tuesday. (Plants, endangered species, conservation, describing plants, writing factual description, using such as to introduce examples.)
Intermediate

Not To Your Taste?
President Barack Obama likes burgers, hot dogs and such, but when it came time to answer a question about his favorite food, broccoli was the first word that sprang from his lips. Former American President George Bush Sr.'s famous dislike of broccoli might be put down to the fact that he could be a "supertaster". (Predicting using a headline, writing questions, summarizing the text, metaphors, writing a report, prepositions, future - will for predictions.)Intermediate

Operation Flower
A Tokyo district with lots of burglaries has turned to planting flowers to help stamp out crime. "'Operation Flower' began about three years ago. By planting flowers, people will be keeping an eye out while taking care of the flowers or watering them... The best way to prevent crime is to have more people on the lookout." (Fighting crime, neighborhood watch groups, miming, listening for numbers, listening to true or false statements, past simple tense verbs - making negatives, making a poster.)Pre-Intermediate

King Bug
Animals such as lions, crocodiles or snakes thrive elsewhere on the planet, but Antarctica's most fearsome land predator is a reddish bug. The continent is best known for penguins, seals and whales, but all rely on the sea for food, unlike its Lilliputian land-based creatures and plants -- so far almost unaffected by humans. (Antarctica, ecosystems, climate change, answering true or false questions, adverbs.)Advanced

Urban Foragers
Eating locally means different things to different people, but to urban foragers it can literally mean eating close to home. You may not realize it, but a wealth of healthy -- and free -- food may be growing just outside your front door. (Foraging in urban settings, eating locally grown food, restaurants, scanning, completing a table, comprehension, idioms using fruit and vegetables.)Advanced

On with biotech crops?
As the GM crops industry celebrates its 10th anniversary, the early promises of biotech crops remain largely unrealized, and many countries have banned the technology amid concerns about health and the environment. (An overview of the first decade of GM crops, business, discussion, predicting from a headline, comprehension.)Advanced

The Humble Potato
Max tells us about the history of the words to do with potatoes.Intermediate

Coffee - A Complex Brew
Angela Holder does not swallow her coffee at work. In scenes redolent of a wine-tasting session, she slurps it, swishes it around her mouth and noisily spits it out. She 'cups' coffee. (Coffee tasting, coffee market, coffee, Make a choice Game, coffee knowledge quiz, reading for the main idea, multiple choice questions, reading about a process, Talking about coffee or tea Game, descriptive writing, finishing an ad.)Advanced

Is Ecotourism Too Popular?
Ecotourism is taking its toll on wildlife and may be endangering the survival of the very animals people are flocking to see, according to researchers. (Ecotourism and its impact on wildlife, animal quiz, talking about animals, predicting, completing a table, check your understanding, true, false or not given, the present continuous, jigsaw reading, crossword.)Intermediate

Vocabulary Crossword - Fruit
This warmer is a fun way to get students to think about and remember vocabulary groups they have already learned.Pre-Intermediate

Traditional Chinese Medicine
Some Chinese remedies such as bird's nest, sheep placenta and caterpillar fungus may be a bit too exotic for the uninitiated but many traditional remedies are gaining popularity among Western consumers who seek natural ways to beat stress and boost their health. (Traditional Chinese medicine, predicting from the headline, finding information, completing a table, true, false and not given, finding grammatical errors, jigsaw reading, expressions with 'put'.)Upper-Intermediate

Amazon Destruction
The rate of forest destruction of Brazil's treasured Amazon jungle fell 13.4 percent last year from a five-year peak in 2000, but it is still at a pace that deeply troubles environmentalists. (Amazon jungle, scanning, comprehension, prefixes and suffixes, present participles.)Upper-Intermediate

Mangrove Forest Under Threat
Bangladesh and India will work together under a UN plan to protect the Sundarban, the world's biggest mangrove forest. (Conservation, mangrove forests, endangered species, discussion, superlative adjectives, crossword.)
Pre-Intermediate

Finnish Grapes
Grapes will soon ripen for wine production in Finland using warm water from a nuclear reactor cooling system. (Technology, farming, dictionary work, using 'will' to talk about a future fact.)
Elementary

Water, water everywhere...
Many of the world's freshwater lakes face death by pollution, resulting in catastrophe for the human populations that depend on them. Experts have warned that there is not a lake left on the planet that is not already being affected by human activities. (Discourse markers, text structure, participles as relative clauses.)Advanced

Spot-less!
It's red, smelly, grows in the sea -- and it could spell the end of hours of angst in front of the mirror for teenagers stricken by pimples or dandruff. (seaweed, synonyms, dictation.)Intermediate

Plant and Animals
The African honeyguide is a bird that aid hunters in rare, sweet partnership. Plants, like humans, also talk to each other and warn of impending danger. (plants, research, animal communication, body language, 'by + verb + ing' when we want to express how something is done, homophones)
Intermediate

Nuts
Ever wanted to find out more about 'nuts' and 'nut cases'? Max presents us with the perfect opportunity.Intermediate

Chocolate
The name seems to fit the commodity - the word "chocolate" sounds firm, brittle, with the "crack" of breaking chocolate before melting into the "l" sound. Mmmmm. Ever wanted to know where chocolate comes from, what it contains or about words connected with chocolate? Mr. M. Vocab. can help.
Intermediate

GM Food - Needed
An official from Nigeria says that African nations need access to genetically modified crops to boost food production, not lectures from "misguided" groups in more developed countries about the possible perils of the new generation of seeds: "To deny desperate, hungry people the means to control their futures by presuming to know what is best for them is not only paternalistic, but morally wrong."
(Food shortages, Africa)
Intermediate to Upper-Intermediate